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TRAIN_RUNNER

                                             May  9, 2008

                                                         BLACK_SWAN
    "My classmate in Paris, the novelist-to-be
    Jean-Olivier Tedesco, pronounced,
    as he prevented me from running to catch
    a subway, 'I don't run for trains.' "

              -- p.297

    Here I have a major
    difference with Taleb:
    I actually like                 NIETZSCHE
    running for trains.

    I too, had a classmate-- a dead-head, and
    corporate takeover-manager-to-be-- who had
    vowed never to run for a bus; and similarly
    I had a professor of existentialism who
    chided me for running for a train; and I
    thought they were both acting like affected          (And from me,
    idiots.                                              that's saying
                                                         something.)


    But I like the metaphoric
    use Taleb makes of this:             But then, he also says:

    "Snub your destiny.  I have          "Many people do not realize
    taught myself to resist              that they are getting a
    running to keep on schedule.         lucky break in life when
    This may seem a very small           they get it.  If a big
    piece of advice, but it              publisher (or a big art
    registered.  In refusing to          dealer or a movie executive
    run to catch trains, I have          or a hotshot banker or a
    felt the true value of               big thinker) suggests an
    _elegance_ and aesthetics            appointment, cancel
    behavior, a sense of being           anything you have planned:
    in control of my time, my            you may never see such a
    schedule, and my life."              window open up again.  I am
                                         sometimes shocked at how
    (But not his waistline.)             little people realize that
                                         these opportunities do not
                                         grow on trees."  -- p. 209
        For me, this would be
        my refusal to carry a               But sucking up to the
        cell phone, and my                  rich and famous has it's
        decision to shun car                limits.
        commuting...
                                            In the world of music,
        And perhaps my                      the word is out that
        determination to avoid              you really need to
        proprietary software.               watch your ass when a
                                            major label comes
                                            calling: one of the
                                            things that they're
                                            expert with is screwing
                                            over young musicians
                                            without much business
                                            experience who are easy
                                            to get excited about
                                            making it big at last.

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